ZICARELLI: LeBron's team has Cavalier attitude

ZICARELLI: LeBron's team has Cavalier attitude

Slow and disinterested from the start, slower and even less engaged as the game would progress, the Cavs were more like cadavers than a team accustomed to playing for a championship.

Old and not getting any younger, the Cleveland team that took to the court Thursday night in its first and only visit to the ACC was a shell of the team that stepped on the same floor during last spring’s sweep of the Raptors.

Embarrassing, regrettable, abysmal, brutal — there aren’t enough words, at least not good ones, to describe an offence that was stuck in the mud, a defence that yielded far too many straight-line drives, dunks and put-back dunks.

It was wretched basketball, the Cavs getting carved and showing little care as the Raptors scored at will, leading 65-40 at the break.

At halftime, Toronto’s bench had doubled the total produced by Cleveland’s second unit, overall the Raptors outscoring the Cavs 21-0 from beyond the three-point arc.

Toronto didn’t use a single timeout in the game’s opening 24 minutes, Cleveland forced to take five, head coach Tyronn Lue growing more annoyed as his team got soft, showing no signs of fight or heart.

These are the Cavs and LeBron James isn’t going to tolerate this kind of performance and effort when the post-season arrives, a time when Cleveland will be measured.

For now, games such as Thursday can be summed up as one loss, this one a 133-99 beatdown, at the end of a five-game trip that wraps up Friday in Indiana, no matter how ugly it got.

It’s not the first time the Cavs have been exposed for their defensive deficiency, lack of toughness and failing to pay any attention to the game’s details.

It likely will happen again.

Next time the Cavs come to town, the stakes will be much higher and their intensity level greater.

Well before tipoff, James was in a reflective mood when reporters huddled with the league’s biggest name at Cleveland’s shootaround.

Had the lottery balls gone Toronto’s way, the legend of LeBron would have been different.

Had the Raptors won the process, James would have been paired with Vince Carter.

Toronto would take Chris Bosh when Dwyane Wade could have been fetched.

Wade made his first appearance in Toronto as a member of the Cavs.

Bosh has left the game to deal with his health, while Wade and James are now considered as the elder statesmen in basketball.

Wade comes off the bench and his true value won’t be felt until the playoffs begin in more than three months.

James, naturally, still attracts an audience and every word he utters gets dissected and debated.

At shootaround, the topic of when to call it a career was broached and whether he thinks about such matters.

“I do not. The only thing is with my kids getting older, that’s the only thing that would stop me from going as long as I would like to.

“I’ve got a 13-year-old son now who is in the seventh grade. He’s a damn good basketball player, too. On this road trip, I’ve already missed four of his games. That’s the thing that kind of sucks, to have a 10-year-old boy, three-year-old girl, the daddy side kicks in sometimes. That will be a deciding factor in how long I’ll play, but right now I feel great. We’ll see.”

The physical gifts are there and, in fact, James is getting better as an overall player.

Between the ears, the game hasn’t seen the likes of James, whose basketball IQ is off the charts.

He’s smart, savvy, calculating, the whole package when sizing up teams and opponents.

When he talks, the basketball world listens.

When such a player can the needle, any indication, real or imagined, on where he may play, he’s a free agent this summer, people pay attention.

Two titles in Miami, one in Cleveland and only time will tell whether James can deliver another championship to his native Ohio.

Without Kyrie Irving, the Cavs lack that young, explosive piece who can create and dominate.

In Isaiah Thomas, who came to Cleveland as part of the Irving deal, the Cavs have a scoring guard who can play off James.

Expectations are high with these Cavs, but James admits the bar he set for himself has already been reached.

“I’ve already went further than I thought I would go,” James said. “Everything else at this point is extra credit. I’m at 15 years in. I don’t know, I’ve been in this spotlight for half of my years, maybe more. I’m 33 now. This started when I was 15, so, yeah, more.

“Eighteen years I’ve been in this light. I’ve already exceeded everything I’ve ever dreamed about. At this point, I’m just adding crazy toppings on the cake, like my daughter would do. Just throw all kinds of stuff on the cake and whatever happens, happens.”

Some say James is chasing the ghost known as Michael Jordan, a six-time champion.

The truth is both James and Jordan are among the most elite of the game’s elite, 1 and 1a, depending on where one stands in the debate.

James never had a Scottie Pippen and Jordan didn’t play in this free-flowing era where physical contact is not tolerated.

Bill Russell was the greatest champion, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar the most lethal, given his hook shot could not be defended, Magic Johnson had the greatest court vision, but one can go on and on and list a myriad great players, the game’s true superstars.

James is in that stratosphere and all he can do now is add to his legacy.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.